Lupercalia was a traditional Roman festival held every year on the 15th of February. And we know that the priests who held the festival were called Luperci. But, honestly, we know very little else.
Though little is known about how this festival started it has been suspected that it derives its name from the word “lupus”, the Latin for wolf. And it should be no surprise that the Romans are holding a festival about a wolf, as this animal holds a very important place in Roman mythology.
It is likely that the festival would have a connection with the ancient deity of Rome, the legendary She-wolf. The She-wolf was the nurse of Romulus, the founder of Rome, and his brother Remus.
There is so evidence that the festival itself was originally a fertility rite and thus was associated with the god Faunus. However the Romans are infamous for borrowing their culture from earlier civilizations, and the gloss they put on this older celebration is undoubtedly their own.
Where did it Come From?
No evidence survives of where exactly the festival originated but it has been traced back at least to the 6th century BC. According to the Roman legend, King Amulius, the mother of Romulus and Remus was a vestal virgin, and she was to be punished for breaking her vow of celibacy. Her brother, the uncle of the children, commanded that Romulus and Remus were to be drowned in the river Tiber in retribution.
When the servants attempted to drown Romulus and Remus the high waters made it impossible to reach the stream. The servants then left the basket with the babies in the flooded areas around the river and they were washed away. It was after this that the She-wolf found the babies and nursed them.
The twins were later adopted by a roaming shepherd and his wife. They grew up with this family before learning of their uncle’s treachery. They trained themselves in warfare and eventually returned and killed their uncle.
Upon completing this deed, they returned to the cave den of the she-wolf who had saved them and nursed them. They named her Lupercal. It has been since concluded that the Lupercalia took place to honor this foundational myth.
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But, in all honesty, that’s a guess. There was another god called Lupercus, a fertility god, and it could just as easily be his party. Or it could be a festival for Faunus, as mentioned above. We only really know that the festival existed, and that it was important to the Romans.
The Festival Itself
We do know some things, however. The Lupercalia had its own priesthood named the Luperci, literally the “brothers of the wolf”. The institution itself and the rites are said to have been established by the Arcadian hero Evander and here there are definitely links to Romulus and Remus.
The priests were usually young men who were aged between 20 and 40. There were two religious associations based on the ancestry of the men. The Quinctiliani, one of the highest posts in ancient Rome, and the Fabiani, a traditionally ancient family of Ancient Rome that helped to found the Republic.
In 44 BC, a third association was added named the Juliani which was established in honor of Julius Caesar. The first head of it was Mark Antony but this did not last long. The association was disbanded after Caesar’s assassination. The priesthood was eventually opened further up to the equestrian (lesser nobles) rank of Roman citizenship around a century later.
Lupercalia took place in a variety of different places. However it became particularly associated with some specific locations in Rome, most notably the Lupercal cave, the Palatine Hill, and Rome’s preferred open-air public meeting place, the Comitium.
It began in the cave with animal sacrifice. Every Lupercalia began with the sacrifice of goats, male ones specifically, and dogs, the symbol of sexuality in Ancient Rome. The animals were led by the Luperci to an altar.
Two of the Luperci were then selected to be touched by the sacrificial knife on their foreheads before the blood was wiped away with wool dipped in milk. A slightly odd and unusual custom also dictated that the two men who were selected for this part of the ritual were expected to laugh throughout it.
A feast would follow after which the Luperci would cut themselves thongs from the skins of the sacrificed animals before running around the Palatine hill and striking women. This blow was meant to bestow the power of fertility upon the women.
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They would return to the Lupercal cave, before selecting a woman’s name from a jar and coupling with that woman for the festival. It would often be the case that the couple would stay together until the following year’s festival whilst some would get married and stay together.
The festival did evolve over time. Nakedness was one of the first things to go. The festival did become more chaste but it remained a symbol of hedonism where women were whipped on their hands by clothed men.
In 494 AD, the Christian church under Pope Gelasius I had finally had enough. The church forbade anyone’s participation in the festival. It was originally believed that the festival was replaced by a Christian one, Candlemas (which is usually held on the 2nd of February) but the festivals likely co-existed for around a century.
However, there might be a link between Lupercalia and a much more famous day.
Valentine’s Day
There has long been a link between Lupercalia and Valentine’s Day. It has been suggested that this originated in Geoffrey Chaucer’s 12th-century idea of courtly love.
When Pope Gelasius I eliminated the celebration of Lupercalia, there is a suggestion that he encouraged the celebration of Saint Valentine’s martyrdom on the 14th of February. After all, both festivals have a link to fertility and romance.
Lupercalia does share some symbols of Valentine’s Day though. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown. The color red which represented the animal sacrifice in Lupercalia has been used exhaustively by Valentine’s Day celebrations as has the color white which represents the milk used to wash the blood away. It was used in Lupercalia as a representation of new life and procreation.
There is a lot of murkiness around the origins of both of these festivals and so it is hard to see if there is a connection. There are only vague similarities between them including the dates and the colors used to symbolize them.
As Lupercalia is no longer celebrated, it is difficult to make any meaningful connection. However, some Non-Christians are said to still celebrate the festival today though very much in private. There has been little to no mention of men doing a naked circuit of the Palatine Hill whilst they whip women, thankfully.
Top Image: The brothers of the wolf, the priests of Lupercalia, run naked through the streets beating women with leather thongs. Source: Andrea Camassei / Public Domain.
By Kurt Readman
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